Discrimination
Five syllables more venomous than a rattlesnake bite.
More painful than a little girl not getting her kiss goodnight.
We all know what it is,
Yet we act as though the impact is nothing.
Act as if our hateful words, stares, and feelings towards different people
Is nothing.

Close your eyes, and remember a time when Big Bird and Elmo were saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover!"
I think they forgot to mention if the book is female, male, black, white, Asian, Middle Eastern, Hispanic, Latino, gay, straight, transgender, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist
That it's not right to judge it either.

We need to change how we feel about others if we want this one life, this one short and precious life we get to live, in peace and harmony.
I'm not here to blame everyone for the wrongful doing of others; I am here to make you all aware of how these discriminatory, biased, and bigoted acts AFFECT other people.

When I was 11 years old,
A boy walked up to me with a smirk on his face,
And asked me what my religion was.
When I said I was a proud Muslim, his expression changed, deviously grinning ear-to-ear, his finger moving ever so slowly toward my face and his eyebrows turned into blond diagonal lines, "Oh, so you're a Muslim, well why don't you go back to your dirty country with your terrorist family and your herd of camels."

Thinking back I probably would have laughed in his face, and said something stereotypical about southern boys, but I was only 11 and felt so small. This was my first experience with discrimination.

As I've grown, I've stepped out of the fantasy world where everyone will get along and I see the way ignorant people treat each other. It makes me physically sick.

To the people, whoever you are, whoever you love, whatever you believe as you can spew out your verbal toxins as you think it's funny to call someone disgusting because they are gay, or think it's funny to call someone weak because they are a women, or think it's funny to call an 11 year old boy a terrorist because he is a Muslim, take these next few words I say to heart.

The next time you call that 11 year old boy a terrorist, remember you are fueling the death trap that is discrimination, and the only person to blame,

Is

Your

Self.